As far as hobbies go, cars are generally an unusual response from a girl. So far I’ve mentioned that I like cars before and have talked about them a little bit, but I haven’t ever really divulged into the story behind it. Which is why I thought this might be an interesting post to talk about my background and emergence into the “car scene”.

I have never been the usual girl who played with Barbies (although I did have a few, and my favorite was my Jasmine Barbie), played house, conducted tea parties, and dressed up dolls. I was more of the tomboy (play in the dirt, climb trees, and make club houses) type. So I guess for my parents it wasn’t a big surprise when I became fascinated with cars. However, it wasn’t until high school that it really became a hobby and not just an interest.

At about the end of sophomore year/beginning of junior year I had made friends with some other car people who not only were interested in cars but also modded their cars and went to car meets/shows. This introduced me to the car scene. I started meeting new people and learning a lot about different cars and soon I couldn’t wait to get my own car to mod. However it wouldn’t be until the end of senior year when I would have my own car so the research began, what car did I want?

Ironically the car I ended up getting was initially one that I didn’t like as far as looks went. But in the end the car grew on me and on May 28, 2006 I picked up my 2005 Acura RSX Type S in Nighthawk Black Pearl. At that point the only manual driving experience I had had was in an Acura Integra GSR for about 5-10 minutes, so my dad test-drove and drove home my car. Once the car was home I was thrilled. I went out to a parking lot that day and spent a few hours teaching myself how to drive manual and afterwards drove directly to my friend’s house to show off my new car.

Now that I had my car I was pumped to start going to meets and shows with it and meet other RSX owners. I became a member on the ClubRSX forums and soon met several other kids my age, who later became some of my best friends. Having a community soon jumpstarted the desire to mod because now there were others who could appreciate the things I did to my car and who could inspire me in a friendly competitive way.

Thousands of dollars and many hours of labor later I had a car that I was proud to drive and show off. Unfortunately though others also appreciated my car enough to break into it once and try to steal it another time. This was naturally devastating but luckily it also happened before I was about to put more money into it. Although I no longer mod “Luna” (my RSX Type S) because of what happened, I still love cars and am excited for the day when I get to find a new project, hopefully one that isn’t such a hot commodity for thieves.